It's the principle of the matter. I'm already paying a subscription fee, so why am I still being bombarded with ads? I can understand the ads being there if you're a Silver member, but Gold members should not have to deal with them. It's like Microsoft is saying, "Thanks for subscribing to our service. Now -blam!- you, here's some ads." What a bunch of pricks.

You pay for satellite television, you still have ads. You pay for a ticket to a movie, you still have ads. You pay for a newspaper, you still have ads. You pay for a magazine, you still have ads.

You pay a TV license for the BBC, you don't have ads. Wait, WHAT? Many services online offer a "premium" version of their service which is advertisement-free, as all revenue is made through the use directly and it often actually makes more money than the ads themselves do for that one person's browsing/use. Things like Xbox LIVE shouldn't have adverts if you pay for the service. You already pay for your internet connection, and with the amount of ads you see it's surprising they're even there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the original dashboard feature NO ads?

The original dashboard had no ads whatsoever. Microsoft rolled them out progressively, culminating to the current dashboard, which I'm convinced was designed for the sole purpose of maximizing ad space.

And still none of you have given me any reason why the ads are bad. They don't affect your experience in a negative way and they do for the most part, inform you of deals/relevant information to gaming. Yes, we Americans are all aware of the lack of ads in Television for Britain. Big whoop.

They are annoying.. The Ads on TV brings you your favorite TV shows free of charge. What do the ads on Xbox Live do for you? Make your dashboard look like shit. Premium users should have at least the ability to control what advertisement they have on their dashboard or remove the completely.

Are you kidding me? Even paid television has ads! Your rebuttal is irrelevant before it begins.

Paid Television gives you access to watch channels that don't charge you an extra fee to watch. The advertisements pay for those. Paid internet gives you access to free websites you don't pay for. Advertisements pay for those. What do Xbox Live advertisements do for the consumers to make services free for them? None...

You're missing the point of Ad Revenue. It's there to alleviate the costs on the consumers, you don't necessarily get anything free out of them. Maybe Microsoft added ads instead of raising the subscription price again. Maybe their costs went up somewhere else and this is balancing out the added overhead. Or....wait for it....they are just trying to generate additional revenue, which is a perfectly legitimate practice. So again, give me a reason as to why these ads are so bad and so intrusive. I looked over my dashboard last night and had to really look to notice the ads. Stop complaining about nothing.

To generate more revenue? Microsoft must becoming desperate or poor? When they don't give an explanation, it makes them look greedy and that is what pisses off either some of the most loyal customers off. Maybe if they would have given us a few benefits of being a Gold member that actually made sense, they wouldn't be having that problem?

They do a lot of other things that make them look greedy, this makes them look like a business. I'm a fairly loyal customer and the ads don't piss me off one bit. There are plenty of benefits to being a gold member, you may not utilize them all or realize what they are, but they are there.

Can you list me the benefits? I know it gives you the usage of Internet Explorer and Youtube, but I can use it on the PC at not extra cost and it runs a hell of a lot smoother (PC just has better hardware maybe? Can't be my 10mbps connection?) I know it gives you access to Netflix.. which you pay a fee just to have that. So you have to pay an internet access fee, a netflix fee and a Xbox Live fee just to watch it through your xbox. (I've enjoyed netflix a lot more on my PC, because the quality is higher and there is little to no waiting time when it comes to loading. Again, probably because the Xbox just has outdated hardware) Other than that, I'm not sure what it offers?

Go to Xbox.com and find out for yourself. That's a lot to list.

Let's see 1. Enjoy unlimited online multiplayer with friends wherever they are. 2. Download and play free game demos. 3. Enjoy exclusive member deals and previews. 4. Catch up on movies and TV with Netflix, HBO GO, Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video. 5. Watch sports with ESPN, MLB.TV, NBA Game Time and UFC. 6. Listen to personalized music with Xbox Music, iHeartRadio and Last.fm. 7. Download arcade and full Xbox 360 games. 8. Use your phone or tablet as a second screen for an enhanced game and entertainment experience. 9. Explore the web on your TV with Internet Explorer for Xbox. 10. Access your cloud game saves wherever you are. 11. Use your voice to easily find games, music, movies and TV shows with Kinect. My argument to be against these: #1: PC offers that for free, the PS3, I think the Wii U and OUYA will? #2: PC offers this. I think the PS3 and Wii U offers this.. Just about any recent gaming device offers this.. My Galaxy 3 offers this.. At no extra cost. #3: I've seen those.. Originally a game will costs 800 points.. And they'll knock it down to 600 points.. whoopy? #4: Those services require an additional fee to use. It'd be more ideal to use them on the PC, where you only have to pay for the internet itself. #5: TV or Internet on PC? That is all. #6: OUYA offers though too.. Still waiting for my OUYa console to get here.. I believe they don't charge for their online. I'm sure you can get that on PC as well? #7: Good for exclusive arcades, alright. One I can't argue against. #8: Useless to me. I have an Android phone and I don't know anyone that owns a Windows Phone. It's a bad fad/gimmick. #9: LOL.. PC, PS3, Maybe the Wii U and probably the OUYA all offer internet searching free of an additional charge? My phone can do this as well. #10: The second thing I can't argue against. I never used it when I was Gold and the only thing I would have used it for was to back up my saved game data.. Which only one time did stuff get corrupted and it was only Halo 3 video saves. #10. Another feature I don't use. I never bought into the Kinect.. My folks have a Wii and we hardly use it anyways. Hell.. my step-dad has used his Kiosk version of the PS3 more than the Wii. So out of all of those.. Only two I could not really argue against for having Gold.. Only two.. And the most important feature of them all for any gaming console.. the ability to play with others on that list.

Okay, you've somewhat defended why YOU won't pay for gold for listed services, but people who have friends with xboxes or who play halo/gears/other exclusives online will pay for gold to do that and everything else is gravy. Also, if you buy an xbox for Halo and pay for gold because of halo, you are going to do your other competitive gaming on the xbox as well. And the discounts and deals gold members get often amount to much more than a 200 point discount. Also, be real with yourself, matchmaking on the PS3 has never been as reliable as the Xbox, plus developers have more issues with making games on the PS3. If it is comparable to the xbox now, it has only improved recently. Let's not forget that Xbox live has never been shut down for over a month due to a hack either.